Manic Monday - Play

This week’s Manic Monday word is Play. You can only imagine how overwhelmed I was with Play ideas.

First, I would really like to know why children want to play with everything that is not a toy. In fact, my most popular phrase these days seems to be, “Don’t play with that! It’s not a toy!” This includes things like the telephone, the computer, the ice maker, the espresso machine, the microwave, the fireplace, the cat, or 90% of items they feel the need to screw with when in any store. . . just to name a few.

I mean, jeez! I spend a pretty penny on all the latest toys advertised every day on Nick Jr. (I am quickly learning to despise all commercials), yet the children will play with some new toy once, and then decide it’s more fun to snag my cell phone from my purse and try to call China. WTF?!

Luckily, Georgia is really getting into pretend play, so most of the time she doesn’t even turn my phone on. She just likes to talk to the imaginary soul on the other end. She has also taken to playing dress-up, which can be extremely cute. I have a great picture of her naked, wearing only my shoes. She loudly proclaimed, “LOOK! I’M A MAMA!” I don’t seem to remember the last time I walked around the house naked except for a pair of shoes, but it seemed to work for her.

There are some days when too much play makes us all just a little bit cranky. On Friday, we had a play date at my friend Heather’s house. She has two children the same ages as mine. After a long morning of playing hard and trying to keep my children from banging on her lovely piano, I thought we could make a quick trip to Target before we came home. I didn’t take into consideration the fact that all that playing had made the children extremely cranky.

When we got out of the car at Target, Georgia attempted to yank away from me to run in the parking lot. I quickly caught her, but she did manage to get away from me once we went in the door. I got right down in her face and told her that she needed to sit in a cart. This would be the point where she threw herself on the ground and began kicking and screaming. Right then, an older man walked past us and mumbled, “Moms don’t get paid enough.”

Yeah, tell me about it! I scooped Georgia up and announced we were leaving since Georgia chose not to sit in a cart. Well, this really pissed off Eli because he had wanted to go look at toys. He planted his feet firmly on the floor and shouted, “I am NOT leaving.”

This is the part where you can be proud of me for not smacking my children. I told him that if he didn’t come with me, I would leave him there by himself. I only took about two steps toward the door before he came running after me crying and screaming, “NOOOOOOO! Don’t leave!!!! I want to stay!”

So, visualize us right inside the door of Target (which, mind you, is right by all the registers of people checking out, so there were roughly 100 people staring at us). I had both arms wrapped around Georgia because she was screaming and bucking her little body so hard trying to get away from me. And I had Eli wrapped around one of my legs screaming that he wanted to stay as I hobbled as quickly as I could out of the store.

Who says I don’t know how to make a dramatic exit?